Tag Archives: Outer Islands

Transportation

CCEDA encourages Cortes to take the Survey on Rural Passenger Transportation

Cortes Community Economic Development Association

Recently, the province announced a new rural intercommunity transportation study. Cortes Islanders will be familiar with efforts over the years to explore improvements in transportation options for residents and visitors while reducing the island’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

This new transportation study will address rural intercommunity transportation. For residents of Cortes, Sonora and Read Islands, this is mainly about finding affordable and reliable ways to get across Quadra Island to access essential goods and services without the use of a personal vehicle.

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Food

First 2 months of ICAN’s food recovery program: almost 1,300 people benefit

In the two months that ICAN’s food recovery program has been in operation, close to 1,300 people have received benefits.  

“Since the beginning of March we’ve distributed 10,408.4 kilos of food, and that has been  distributed to 338 individuals, who were feeding 671 people.  In addition to that, we have been supplying various agencies like Quadra Circle, the Read Island Aging In Place program, the Read Island Community Kitchen. These agencies have been feeding an additional 600 people. In  total, we estimate that this food has provided meals for 1,271 people,” said Ramona Boyle, Coordinator of Quadra ICAN.

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Animals, History, Indigenous Nations History

A Breed Apart: What was the Coast Salish woolly dog, and can we bring it back?

Editor’s note:  Salish Woolly dogs are believed to have been common throughout Coast Salish territories, so were most likely kept by the ancestors of the Homalco, Klahoose and Tla’amin First Nations. The oldest remains of this breed date back 4,000 years and were found in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Sheep wool is believed to have replaced dog wool in Indigenous communities after 1862.

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

If you had been wandering the Coast Salish territories of British Columbia some 4,000 years ago, rambling dense woodland and visiting village longhouses, you would likely have spotted a number of small, white, flocculent pooches.

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Education

Cortes Island Academy has students for next semester; needs funding

The Cortes Island Academy appears to have its full quota of 20 students for 2023/24.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie, the Academy’s principle Board member, explained, “We’ve let the first 20 students know that they have a spot if they want it, and then we’ll start taking students off our wait list. This time last year, we were still like, ‘Oh no, we don’t know if anybody will sign up for this crazy new program we have.’ This year, not only is it an established program that’s going to keep continuing into the future, but we had so many applicants that we had to have a wait list.” 

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Energy, Rivers & Oceans

Tide-powered clean energy could help West Coast communities ditch diesel

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new tidal energy pilot project to reduce dependence on diesel in B.C.’s remote coastal communities is set to launch after getting some critical funding. 

The aim is to advance and deploy a small-scale tidal turbine project in the waters off West Thurlow Island to showcase the technology for other off-grid coastal communities interested in generating clean electricity with ocean energy, said Ben Whitby, program manager at PRIMED, a marine renewable energy research lab at the University of Victoria (UVic).

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